MAIZE. 153 



England and on the Continent, hundreds of thousands of 

 horses which are fed principally on maize, are worked in 

 'busses, trams, vans and heavy carts, and leave nothing to be 

 desired as to the manner in which they perform their labour. 

 The merits of maize have long been recognised in America, 

 from which country we have adopted it as a food for man 

 and beast. 



The contradictory nature of the foregoing results may, I 

 think, be explained by the fact that the feeding value of maize 

 is greatly affected by the manner in which this grain is 

 presented to the horse to eat. Its undue hardness and its 

 deficiency in woody fibre are the two weak points about maize 

 which should be specially provided for, and which can be best 

 avoided by grinding the grain and the cob together (see 

 preceding paragraph). Henry tells us that " about one-fifth 

 the weight of well-dried corn of the better varieties consists of 

 cob." When the cob cannot be utilised along with the grain, 

 the maize should be crushed or coarsely ground, and mixed 

 with bran or chop. " Corn meal alone is a sodden substance 

 in the animal's stomach, and should be diluted or extended 

 with something of light character. Bran serves well for this 

 purpose, because of its lightness and cooling effect, as well as 

 the protein (nitrogenous matter) and mineral matter it fur- 

 nishes " (Henry}. As South African chaff consists of bruised 

 and broken-up straw, it forms an admirable vehicle for maize, 

 the particles of which it keeps separate, and by its softness it 

 allows the animal to thoroughly masticate them, whether the 

 grain be broken or whole. Under ordinary conditions, if 

 maize be given whole, it is apt by its hardness to make the 

 horse's mouth sore, and when his mouth is in that state he is 

 inclined to swallow the grain without chewing it, in which case 

 it will be liable to give rise to digestive disturbance. 



While fully granting the value of maize as a food for 

 ordinary working horses, I think we would do well to restrict 



